A few weeks before Christmas I posted that I didn’t take any photos of our marbling adventure at a recent Fiberista’s meeting because I was disappointed with the results. I was disappointed with the marbling results, but I was very impressed with another bit of dying we did that day. Barb and her sister have been experimenting with a process called eco dying, with great results. These are some of Barb’s silk scarves. Aren’t they gorgeous!

Prior to that get together she emailed us and said she would do a demo on this before we began marbling, because it had to “cook” for 2 hours. When we arrived she had everything set up for each of us to try our hand at this interesting process. We were thrilled!
Barb had collected and flattened enough leaves for us all. She had them soaking in an iron solution. She’d also “scoured” muslin for us (perhaps I should try marbling scoured fabric 🤔). This meant she’d boiled it with cellulose scour and soda ash. She said it was a pain ~ and we were grateful she was willing to do it for us. We laid our wet scoured fabric on plastic sheeting and began placing the wet leaves in a pleasing arrangement, as Ruth and Barb are doing on the right in the photo below. Lori and I were at the next step in which we took another piece of fabric and wet it either in plain water, or the iron water the leaves had soaked in, and laid it over our leaves. Lori did the first option and I chose the second. That’s why the one in the lower left (mine) is more of a beige color.

Once this was done we rolled the entire length around pvc tubes, wrapped it in plastic, and tied it tightly.

These tubes were placed in a nesco for 2 hours.

During this time we did our marbling, and when we were done it was time for the unwrapping. Once mine was unrolled I took off the top piece of fabric and began removing the soggy leaves. It was beautiful!

This is what both pieces looked like. They are mirror image. At the top is the actual piece, and the bottom one is the cover fabric.

Beautiful! I was so impressed with the process and the results. They all turned out well.



I can’t wait to see what we each do with this beautiful fabric! Thanks Barb, for a wonderful morning! It’s so much fun to play with quilting friends 😁!
Betty Price says
Absolutely beautiful!
judy raddatz says
Always something new and interesting. Thanks
Julie says
Wow love it. What would happen if u used my dark crimson maple leaves or fall leaves ??? I want to try that. Thanks for sharing!! So interesting. Nature knows best.